He must have searched the entire forest that night, checking every bush, tree and even under small rocks that clearly could not hide the adult princess. But no matter where he looked, no matter how loudly he'd whisper her name--in vain attempts not to alert anyone else of her presence--Kirnathous could not find her. It was even possible he had put more distance between them by frantically searching the forest like a headless, panicked chicken. He had no idea what direction she went. He knew she was after some Akiyama person, but that was about the extent of his knowledge. She was looking for a person and he had no idea where or who that person was. He had no idea where anything was anymore. He has run himself to exhaustion in his desperate search. And eventually, fatigue caught up with the poor unfortunate soul who doomed himself by turning the princess into a grown up. And he literally just crashed onto the forest floor, having passed out mid-walk, just hours before sunrise.

And he probably would have slept the entire morning and half the afternoon away had the sound of a snapped twig not cause him to immediately stir from his not so comfortable slumber. He had landed on his shoulder when he fell, and his glasses were set crookedly on his face. When he sat up, his hair was filled with twigs and leaves; dark circles under his eyes. He looked like a mess. A startled, crazy mess who stared out at the forest. He heard the sound of leaves crunching, someone was coming and they were close, but not so close that he'd be spotted right away. Or one would hopefully believe. But Kirn? He knew better. He recognized the sound of that sort of movement, it was all too familiar to him. Four steps. It was a Centaur. And if he could hear them, chances are they would spot him if he wasn't careful. And they could easily mistake him for something evil and immediately fill him full of arrows and that was not something he wanted to deal with.

So he quietly laid back down on his side, his shoulder stiff and sore from having slept on it awkwardly, and he waited for the centaur to pass. But, as he listened... He heard a voice. The voice of a woman. She sounded upset, her voice suggested she might have even been crying. His eyes narrowed slightly at this. Had a centaur gone rogue? Were they now tormenting innocent people passing through the forest? Would he have to put his foot down?... Of course he would. He would not tolerate this injustice. He would save the damsel in distress and chase the centaur off with a good scolding and a fair warning. There was no way he'd actually kill a centaur, that would cause him to lose friendship points with his favorite goddess. Unless the centaur was just flat out evil, then he'd have to kill it and by then he was sure the goddess would understand.

His body tensed up as the sounds of the centaur and the woman got closer and, once they were close enough, he got to his feet quickly, charging out from his hiding place in a blur of blue and skidding to a halt in front of Mios and Rayne; blocking their way. The long tail end of his coat and his hair flicked about in a cool fashion as he came to a halt, one hand on the hilt of his sword, the other held in midair as if he hoped to block the path. His expression was fierce and focused as his gaze locked onto Mios. He was sure he looked awesome, but in truth... He probably looked like an angry hungover swordsman who spent the night on a bed of twigs and leaves. His glasses were still quite a crooked mess on his face.

"Unhand the maiden, centaur!" He snapped out. "And return to your village! Otherwise I will have to fight you and neither of us want that!"